1 August 2017 - Immediate Release
Probation Union anger over secret funding for privateers as Serious Offences rise
The leader of the largest trade union in the Probation service today questioned the rationale behind a £21 million government bail-out to private providers of probation across England and Wales. The decision was revealed in an answer to a Parliamentary question from Liz Saville Roberts MP. Details of the amounts so far given to 14 of the 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCS) are shown below.*
Ian Lawrence, General Secretary of Napo said:
“News of the government’s decision to throw a financial lifeboat to failing CRCs – with more expected to follow – will go down like a lead balloon with our members who have seen their pay decrease by 21% in real term value whilst they have been shoring up the chaos caused by this disastrous privatisation. We also understand that the second anticipated payment will be considerably higher than the first.”Information also obtained via a Parliamentary question indicates that despite the claims that the privatisation of probation services was said by Ministers to be no threat to public safety, the Ministry of Justice have this week revealed a 24.6% increase in further serious offences (SFO’s) across England and Wales.
Napo, who represents front line practitioners, has been at the forefront of the campaign to expose the flaws that they claim have resulted in sub-standard delivery models, huge caseloads for staff and inadequate supervision which have also been featured in numerous reports from Her Majesty’s Inspector of Probation Dame Glenys Stacey.
Ian Lawrence added:
“This news is bound to cause further interest to members of the Justice Select and Public Accounts Committees and we urge them to order in-depth enquiries into the whole Transforming Rehabilitation project. Napo stands ready to work with Ministers to help bring about improvements to the system but merely throwing more taxpayers money at the problems will not deal with the underlying causes.”*Funding increases for CRC providers
North Yorkshire, Humberside, Lincs Purple Futures (Interserve) £1,319,000
West Yorkshire Purple Futures (Interserve) £1,063,000
Cheshire & Greater Manchester Purple Futures (Interserve) £2,867,000
Merseyside Purple Futures (Interserve) £749,000
Hampshire Purple Futures (Interserve) £786,000
Purple Futures (Interserve)Total £6,784,000
Thames Valley MTC Novo £664,000
London MTC Novo £5,152,000
Thames Valley MTC Novo £664,000
London MTC Novo £5,152,000
MTC Novo Total £5,816,000
Wales (N. Wales, S. Wales, Gwent) Working Links £2,154,000
Gloucestershire, Avon, Somerset, Wilts Working Links £1,218,000
Dorset, Devon, Cornwall Working Links £867,000
Wales (N. Wales, S. Wales, Gwent) Working Links £2,154,000
Gloucestershire, Avon, Somerset, Wilts Working Links £1,218,000
Dorset, Devon, Cornwall Working Links £867,000
Working Links Total £4,239,000
Staffordshire & West Midlands Ingeus (Reducing Reoffending) £1,671,000
Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Notts Ingeus (Reducing Reoffending) £1,815,000
Ingeus Total £3,486,000
West Mercia & Warwickshire EOS Works £581,000
Durham & Cleveland ARCC £1,117,000
Staffordshire & West Midlands Ingeus (Reducing Reoffending) £1,671,000
Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Notts Ingeus (Reducing Reoffending) £1,815,000
Ingeus Total £3,486,000
West Mercia & Warwickshire EOS Works £581,000
Durham & Cleveland ARCC £1,117,000
Should have put a steel toecap into Spurr & his £20k bonus whilst you had the chance Ian.
ReplyDeleteHe has no idea what he should be doing a lost general secretary is as good as a lead weight when drowning. In this mess he has been open about offering to help CRCs get more money from the contract which we all know is more money to shareholder makes you wonder does he have any interests somewhere.
DeleteEU notice regarding Hamshire/IoW contract states:
ReplyDeleteVII.2.3) Increase in price
Updated total contract value before the modifications (taking into account possible earlier contract modifications and price adaptions and, in the case of Directive 2014/23/EU, average inflation in the Member State concerned)
Value excluding VAT: 83 492 000.00 Currency: GBP
Total contract value after the modifications
Value excluding VAT: 90 826 000.00 Currency: GBP
That's an increase of £7,334,000 *NOT* £786,000
Napo - We need to know the REAL figures!!
EU notice regarding Northumbria, not even on Napo's list:
Delete"VII.2.3) Increase in price
Updated total contract value before the modifications (taking into account possible earlier contract modifications and price adaptions and, in the case of Directive 2014/23/EU, average inflation in the Member State concerned)
Value excluding VAT: 95 233 000.00 Currency: GBP
Total contract value after the modifications
Value excluding VAT: 103 927 000.00 Currency: GBP"
An increase of £8.694m.
Perhaps someone could let Liz Savile-Roberts know? Maybe she could pursue this further?
Using the same source of EU notices, the figures for DerbysLeicsNotts tally at £1.815million...
DeleteWhy are some CRCs receiving extra monies and not others?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely not value for money. Just finished 3 yr licence with Purple Futures who did absolutely zero for me during the entire 3 years. The quality of their people is awful; they no longer have any programmes and refuse to provide any kind of help to anyone under any circumstances. It's literally a tick box exercise of a 5 min phone call every other month to check I haven't been arrested and am still living in the same place and every other month a ten min appointment which is a waste of everyone's time. My OASys reports have gone from bad to worse in terms of quality (my name spelled incorrectly throughout the last one for e.g.) with loads of contradictions from section to section. It was also 6 months late being completed. I can't see a single reason why it was contracted out. What little service there used to be has completely vanished and chaos and incompetence now rule
ReplyDeleteWe don't often hear from people on the other side of the desk - could you be tempted to get in touch via the contact details on the profile page, anonymously is fine. Whatever, confidentiality guaranteed.
Deletei agree its a farce. how on earth ingeus which is owned by
ReplyDeleteThe Providence Service Corporation get any more money is beyond me.
As ever Interswerve are doing very well.Out of this - there has been a marked increase within CGM of SFO's with some inexperienced staff being suspended as a result being blamed for being incompetent - you beg the question however the quality of it should I say lack of effective supervision and training - IM's ( SPO's in old money ) spend more time on being business managers focusing on beating us with sticks over targets rather than actually knowing their staff and their cases as used to happen !!!! we have to have case discussions in useless " flex team meetings " where SCM's ( PO's old money ) are expected to manage staff and mentor new case managers !!!! and they wonder why staff are going under and failing to offer effective supervision for offenders - absolute shambles - but still CGM CRC are convinced that PO' s ( which we are very short off ) from NPS are going to come flocking over to us when they're directed to work in Prisons - mmmh I doubt it !!!
ReplyDelete